• Livebearers: Silver Lyretail Molly

NATURAL HABITAT: Southern and Central parts of South America, Caribbean.

SIZE: Mollies can grow up to 4".

COLOUR: Mollies can come in all different colours but are mainly black.

SHAPE: They are similar to the Sail Fin Molly but they have a smaller dorsal fin set back more.

TEMPERAMENT: Peaceful. Mostly used in the community tanks. Not really a good beginners fish.

CARE: Feed with tubifex worms and live foods. Mollies enjoy plants so put lots of live plants in the tank. Mollies like their water slightly salty so add a little aquarium salt and the mollies will be fine.

WATER CONDITIONS: pH 7.0 - 7.5 and a temperature of 25 - 28*C (77*C - 82*F)

GENDER: The gender of mollies can be identified by the male's anal fin (gonopodium).

BREEDING: Mollies are a little harder to breed than other livebearers although they can still be bred. Some aquarium salt in their water will help them grow faster, make them more active, breed and give them more colour.

COMMENTS ON THE MOLLY: These fish where named after a french man named Mollien. They are very facinating but a challenge to breed. Dont be worried about keeping them and their young together if they do breed, because they do not eat their young like the Swordtails and Guppies. The Sailfin variety is very popular and in my opinion are the best livebearer fish that i know of.

What Should I Know About Keeping Mollies?

In the wild, these freshwater livebearers live in areas that may be influenced by tidal action. For this reason, mollies are sometime more comfortable with a slightly brackish environment. Frequently you will find that they are more comfortable with a tablespoon of salt per gallon of water.

Mollies will eat commercial flake foods and live foods. We feed our breeding stocks blackworms, grindal worms and fruitflies in addition to flakes. They also need to have some vegetable matter in their diet, so we add biweekly feedings of Spirulina based flakes. We also encourage algae on the sides and the back of the tank. The fish graze on the algae giving them a good source of plant material.

The common short-finned mollies include the black molly, the gold-dust molly, and other varieties. They can exist nicely in a 10-gallon community tank and will do fine without salt in the water so long as the water is kept very clean.

Sailfin mollies are much larger and more spectacular than their short-finned cousins. They will grow to more than 5 inches long and should not be kept in tanks smaller than 20 gallons. They seem to be more sensitive to water quality than the short-finned mollies.

Like swordtails, folks think that male mollies are rather combative and will attack one another in too small a space, but what they are probably witnessing is a male dominance pattern. Mollies, like swordtails, develop strict hiarchries in their communities...the alpha male will be the male with the largest fins of the most striking color and will defend "his" females in mostly ritualistic displays or aggressiveness. Keeping several females and a couple of males together in a larger tank will generally solve any problems.

Mollies are very a little less adaptable to different temperatures, and prefer warmer temperature than some of the livebearers from the highland stream. Consider keeping your Mollies in the from the mid 70 to high 70 F range.

After you have browsed the American Livebearer Association site (http://www.aka.org), perhaps even joining a local club...read through a couple of books...surfed the net until you need a new mouse...if all else fails, email us.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------